Event Information

Date and Time

Location

Description

Do you work with young people or adults under 25 years and support them with Personal, Social and Health Education (PSHE) in your school, college, community centre or university?

It is likely you deliver workshops around safe sex, responsible drinking and mental health, but do you deliver anything around the potential risks associated with problem gambling or social gaming?

The UK gambling industry has changed significantly over the last decade. Measures introduced by the 2005 Gambling Act and advances in new technology, have impacted on the access and advertising of gambling services in the UK. With Betting Shops now in visible shop-front locations on every High Street, casinos now open 24/7 in most cities, advances in internet (remote) gambling and a massive rise in gambling advertising and sponsorship, the awareness of and opportunity to gamble is far more assessable than it has ever been. The latest data from the Gambling Commission suggests there are over 450,000 people addicted to gambling in the UK right now, with over 130,000 being under the age of 25 years.

Introducing YGAM

The Young Gamblers Education Trust (known as YGAM) is a newly registered UK Charity with social purpose to ‘inform, educate and safeguard young people against problem gambling or social gaming.’ Working with the PSHE Association and Ofqual approved awarding body ASDAN, we have developed the UK’s first accredited, gambling-related harm, licensed training course and resources. Our course and resources have been written for professionals and volunteers who support young people and adults up to the age of 25 years.

To become a licensed YGAM practitioner and gain complimentary access to our accredited resources you are invited to attend our one-day structured training course. Once you have completed this course and become licensed, you will have sign-in rights to our dedicated website so you can download all our resources and education material, allowing you to deliver gambling-related harm workshops to young people and adults in your care.

Our one-day training course will cover the following modules:

Why do people and in particular, young people gamble?

Background on youth gambling (under 25yrs) in the UK.

Introduction and familiarisation with the accredited YGAM gambling-related harm curriculum.

Create a lesson plan or scheme of work that you can take away and use immediately.

Practical tips on delivering the YGAM programme as part of PSHE in the curriculum.

How to measure and demonstrate the effectiveness of your local YGAM programme.

Created by teachers, youth workers, young people, gambling industory leaders and former gambling addicts; the YGAM programme ultimately has been designed to build digital resilience among young people and raise awareness of the potential mental health and financial impacts of problem gambling & social gaming. Facilitation will be provided by the YGAM Director of Education, Adrian Sladdin a former teacher who has worked in education his entire career and YGAM Chief Executive Lee Willows, a former gambling addict who has also worked in education and youth development for over 25 years.

FAQs

YGAM licenced practitioner – what does this entail?

During the workshop you will be provided with your personal sign-in details for the dedicated YGAM website. Additionally, as part of the training you will be given a full tour of this website, shown where all the downloadable material is stored and be supported to create a lesson plan or scheme of work that you can use immediately with your students or young people. All of the material is offered free of charge for colleagues who attend our workshop.

At the end of the workshop, YGAM will complete the paperwork and send to Ofqual approved awarding body ASDAN to secure your license. The license itself will be provided by ASDAN, in the form of a high quality, original ASDAN certificate of attendance. YGAM is proud to be an ASDAN Customised Accreditation Centre. Centre number 35981.

With your permission we would add your name and school or educational establishment to the YGAM website as we are keen to build a team of licenced practitioners across the UK. Licences are not transferable between colleagues and the license covers the individual practitioner and not the educational establishment.

There is no annual renewal fee and once you are licensed your only committment to is inform YGAM if you move to another school or educational establishment.

Where is the training held?

The workshops are held in Central London, however we are willing to hold regional workshops if there is sufficient demand. If you can help us to organise a regional workshop, YGAM will offer one complementary delegate place for every ten paying delegates. If you would like to help and organise a regional workshop, please contact Lee Willows via email on lee@ygam.org

Is my registration/ticket transferrable?

Yes it is, once paid your ticket can be given to any college within our establishment. Please note that YGAM licences are not transferrable.

How do I contact the organiser with further questions?

Please email Lee Willows: lee@ygam.org or telephone the YGAM office on 0203 837 4963. All questions will be responded to within 48 hours, often within 3 hours.

Finally a personal note from our Founder & Chief Executive:

Thank you so much for looking at our event page :)

I am Lee Willows, the Chief Executive of YGAM and a former gambling addict. I know first-hand the devastating consequences that a gambling addiction can cause to yourself and those around you. The lengths I would go to feed my addiction were staggering, brought many people around me to their knees and things got so bad I almost attempted suicide on a two of occasions.

If it were not for my parents, partner, the NHS National Problem Gambling Clinic and addiction treatment chairty GamCare I would now not be here. It is from this very dark place and having the experience of a lived-addiction that I become interested in behavioural addictions. In the UK most people can relate to substance addictions (such as drugs or alcohol), but most people find it hard to understand or even relate to behavioural addictions. According to the UK Gambling Commission there are approximately 450,000 people addicted to gambling right now; even more staggering 130,000 of those are young people under the age of 25 years. It is against this backdrop and following several months of research and piloting our gambling-related harm prevention resources, YGAM is born. My motivation to establishing YGAM with colleagues is to help and prevent others getting in to mess I did. At YGAM we work with the education sector, voluntary (third) sector, gambling industory and public health to achieve our charitable aims.

I really hope you will support our chairty by attending one of these workshops and very much look forward to meeting you.